England herself, it is computed now does the work, by means of steam and
machinery, of eight hundred millions of men. And yet English wants are
no more satisfied to-day than they were a thousand years ago. I do not
say they are altogether unsatisfied; but I say that the consciousness of
want, the demand for products, is just as keen to-day; and I have not
a doubt that if inventions could be introduced into China whereby the
labor of her people should be rendered fifty times as effective as it is
to-day, you would find not a dearth of employment as a consequence, but
rather an increase of activity and an increased demand for labor. To-day
British capital and British talent are fairly grid-ironing the ancient
plains and slopes of Hindostan with British canals, irrigating, and
railroads. It is their _gold_ they say; but it is not British capital,
so much as British genius and British confidence, that are required.
There is wealth enough in India, more gold and silver and gems, probably
to-day than in Europe, for the precious metals always flow thither, and
they very seldom flow thence.
* * * * *
From "Recollections of a Busy Life."
=_166._= LITERATURE AS A VOCATION; THE EDITOR.
No other public teacher lives so wholly in the present, as the
Editor; and the noblest affirmations of unpopular truth,--the most
self-sacrificing defiance of a base and selfish Public Sentiment that
regards only the most sordid ends, and values every utterance solely
as it tends to preserve quiet and contentment, while the dollars fall
jingling into the merchant's drawer, the land-jobber's vault, and
the miser's bag,--can but be noted in their day, and with their day
forgotten.
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